What Hair Reveals

The detection of illegal drugs and pharmaceuticals plays a role in various fields, for example in forensic science, road traffic accidents, in competitive sports or at the workplace. Chemical substances can be detected in blood, saliva, urine and in hair. Hair has the great advantage of storing the substances for a long period, which means that detection is still possible several months after consumption of the drug. In addition to the detection of drugs, hair samples are also used for DNA analysis as well as for the analysis of heavy metals and minerals.